99 Brattle: a blog for progressive theology and critical thinking to transform the world.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Why Progressive Christians Need to Pray

This blog post is the second in a series of three posts inspired by the most popular post from the archive of 99Brattle, “Do Progressive Christians Pray?” by Chris Glaser, published two years ago. The first installment was by Margaret Bullitt-Jonas ’88 and the third installment will be released next week.

By Dr.
Kwok Pui Lan

Prayer,
meditation, and contemplation are pathways to God. During these moments, we are
less obsessed with ourselves and the world around us, as we dwell in the loving
kindness of the one who creates us and calls us into being.

Progressive
Christians have to learn to pray, so that we will not lose heart. The world’s
suffering is immense and our human effort doesn’t seem to make a dent. Prayer
is a discipline, through which we learn to cultivate our hearts and minds to
believe in the impossible, to hold out for hope, and to listen to the voice
from the whirlwind.

Over the
years I have taught generations of students about the spiritual life. They have
taught me about the vulnerability of the spirit, the weakness of the flesh, the
restlessness of the soul, and the bottom pit of despair. From them I learn the
importance of prayer, the solace of God’s healing, and the companionship we
need to walk the spiritual path together.

Prayer is
more than “asking God for something.” Prayer opens up a vista. The German
mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg wrote, “It draws God who is great into a heart
which is small.” Many spiritual teachers, past and present, have taught me how
to pray and I would like to share some of the best advice I have received and invite
readers to share theirs.

Prayer
transforms us, not God. Chris Glaser has taught progressive Christians to pray and written a practical guide to prayer.
He points out that the Desert Fathers and Mothers believed that prayer is about
our transformation, not God’s. “When we pray for someone who is ill or in
prison or mistreated, I do not believe God “fixes” these things, but that we
become better caregivers, liberators, and advocates,” he writes.

Jesus
teaches about prayer beyond words. Franciscan priest and best-selling author Richard Rohr was
the Kellogg Lecturer at the Episcopal Divinity School some years ago. I was so
mesmerized by his lectures that I bought two of his books afterward. InThings Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, he says that Jesus has taught us to pray with
words—the Lord’s Prayer. But many of us forget that Jesus also taught prayer
beyond words: “praying in secret” (Matt. 6:5-6), “not babbling on as the pagans
do” (Matt. 6:7), and the “predawn, lonely prayer of Jesus (Mark 1:35). These
are pointers toward what we would call contemplation today.

Prayer
for serenity.
Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer is well-known: “God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and
wisdom to know the difference.” While progressive Christians want to transform
the world, Niebuhr’s Christian realism reminds us to accept with humility that
there are things we can’t possibly change. Serenity comes when we know that it
is ultimately not up to us, but God. In his original version of the prayer, Niebuhr included
the Zen-like advice, “Living one day at a time. Enjoyment one moment at a
time.”

Ecstasy
in prayer. No one
has described their prayerful and spiritual life in more ecstatic and joyful
language than the mystics. Too often we think of prayer in terms of meekness of
the soul and restrained emotions. But the mystics open a window to a spiritual
life full of passion and buoyed with love. Mechthild of Magdeburg prayed,
“Lord, you are my lover, my longing, my flowing stream, my sun, and I am your
reflection.” Catherine of Siena prayed to the Holy Spirit, “come
into my heart; draw it to Thee by Thy power, O my God, and grant me charity
with filial fear. Preserve me, O ineffable Love, from every evil thought; warm
me, inflame me with Thy dear love.”

Prayer
as blessing. The
Irish philosopher and poet John O’Donohue draws on Celtic spiritual tradition
and blends elegant, poetic language with spiritual insights. One of his many
books has the loving title, To Bless the Space Between Us. He observes, “A blessing evokes a privileged
intimacy. . . A blessing is not a sentiment or a question; it is a gracious
invocation where the human heart pleads with the divine heart.” In one of the
blessings, he invokes:

May we discover

Beneath our fear

Embers of anger

To kindle justice.

The
universe responds.
Alice Walker grew up in Georgia attending church with her family. Later, she
became interested in Native American spirituality and Buddhist meditation. In The Same River Twice,
she talks about honoring the difficult and records a trying moment in her
professional life and separation from her lover. Toward the end of the book,
she says we may pray to God and the divine with many names. For her, the
intention is not to have God answer prayers, but to beseech the universe to
respond.

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian
Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her most recent
book Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude is published by Rowman and Littlefield.

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